Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol III, No 13, 1851Various
General
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol III, No 13, 1851
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
The company having diminished by degrees, at length leave the groomsman
and the bridesmaid the only strangers remaining, who are bound to
disappear the last, and put the bride and bridegroom, with due and
proper solemnity, to rest: they then retire singing "Veni Creator." In
some districts they are compelled, by custom, to watch during the whole
night in the bridal chamber; in others, they hold at the foot of the bed
a lighted candle, between the fingers, and do not withdraw until the
flame has descended to the palm of the hand. In another locality the
groom's-man is bound during the whole long night to throw nuts at the
husband, who cracks them, and gives the kernel to his bride to eat. The
festivity which a marriage occasions generally lasts three days, and, on
Friday, the youthful wife embraces the companions of her childhood and
bids them farewell, as if she never meant to return. Indeed, from the
period of marriage, a new life commences for the Breton, whose days of
single blessedness have been days of festivity and freedom; and it would
seem that when once the wedding-ring has been placed upon the finger,
her only business is the care of her household--her only delight, the
peace of her domestic hearth.
FOOTNOTE:
[10] Pitre-Chevalier says, in his "Brittany," ("_La Brètagne_") "We
Celts of Lower Brittany require nothing more to recognize as brothers
the primitive inhabitants of Wales, than the ability to salute them in
their maternal tongue, after a separation of more than a thousand
years."
[From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal.]
JOANNA BAILLIE.
Joanna Baillie was born in the year 1762, at the manse of Bothwell, in
Lanarkshire. Her father had just been translated from the parish of
Shotts to that of Bothwell; and on the very first day of the family's
removal into the new manse, while the furniture still lay tied up in
bundles on the floors, Mrs. Baillie was taken ill, probably from
over-fatigue, and was prematurely brought to bed of twin-daughters, one
of whom died in the birth, and the other, named Joanna--after her
maternal uncle, the celebrated John Hunter--lived for eighty-nine years,
and became the most celebrated of her race, and one of the most
celebrated women of her time.
Those who like to trace the descent of fine qualities, will be
interested to know that Joanna's mother--herself a beautiful and
agreeable woman--was the only sister of those remarkable men, William
and John Hunter; and that her father, a clergyman of respectable
abilities, was of the same descent with that Baillie of Jarviswood who
nobly suffered for the religion and independence of his country.
Although Mrs. Baillie was forty years of age when she married, she gave
birth to five children. Of these, three grew up: the eldest, Agnes who
still survives; the celebrated Matthew physician to George III.; and
Joanna.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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